SmallScience

Articles and Presentations

Articles

A New Curriculum for Primary Science

Birds at HBCSE

HBCSE campus supports a rich and diverse group of birds. Some species are seen nesting at regular intervals. The trees here provide nesting spots for various birds like crows, pigeons, coppersmith barbets and sunbirds, while the shrubbery and dangling creepers provide nesting spots for tailor birds, bulbuls and babblers. The article lists the avifauna sighted at HBCSE and some tips for bird-watchers.

Photographs: Adithi Muralidhar/ Amit Dhakulkar

Author: Adithi Muralidhar 

Bats: How they sense and behave

With this article on Bats, we start a series on senses and behaviour of living beings.

We begin with Waves and the way we see, produce and hear sounds, relating this to the ‘Air’ Chapter of the Small Science Class IV. Then we learn about different kinds of bats, their wings and their ears. We learn about the way they echolocate. We learn how they spend the entire year together, hibernating, migrating and caring for their babies. We get to know how they evolved wings.  We discuss how bats help us by eating pest insects and by pollinating rain forests, relating this with Chapter 1 ‘Living together’ in Small Science Class V. Bats are not the only animals to echolocate. We describe animals in the sea who use echolocation and why. Finally we list some great online resources to explore Bats, nature’s unique marvel.

Author: Kumar Arunachal

Snake rescuing at HBCSE

Situated right In urban Mumbai, we are often graced by visits from our snake friends, peeping at us through window-grills, crossing us on pavements, climbing up the walls, and so on. We are only now learning to manage snake-sightings in a humane manner. An interview with Ritesh, one of our colleagues who helped handle such sightings admirably, sensitises us to snakes. Vivid, close-up original photographs made available by Amit add depth to this small appreciation of our relationship with this fearful, yet beautiful creature!

Experiences shared by: Ritesh Khunyakari

Photographs: Amit Dhakulkar and external sources, duly credited

Interviewed by: Kumar Arunachal

Snakes at HBCSE campus

Though HBCSE campus is small, it supports a variety of life forms. One can find numerous species of trees, birds, insects and snakes here. The article lists the snakes that have been sighted at HBCSE campus and also gives a brief overview of the four most common venomous snakes of India.

Photographs: Manoj Nair, Amit Dhakulkar and Devadatta Naik.

Author: Adithi Muralidhar; with acknowledgements to Ritesh Khunyakari and Kumar Arunachal whose earlier writings on snakes at HBCSE gave direction to this article.

Worksheets on ‘Constructivism and NCF 2005’

Worksheet on a constructivist approach to teaching ‘Light’

Author: Jayashree Ramadas

Introduction to Symbiosis

Author: Kumar Arunachal

Mind Maps

Small Science Class III

Small Science Class IV

Designed by: Vishakha Bansode, Karen Haydock

 Online resources for topics in Small Science

Let us transform our learnings from these resources to adapt to our own cultural needs and individual teaching and learning styles. We are sure our Small Science teachers will come up with even better ideas!

Compiled by: Rajkumar Diwakar

Gratitude for: Numerous innovators, teachers, graphic designers and private teams who shared their ideas online free of cost

 Fun with Water!

Try these simple activities with water in your Class and watch the children learning concepts along with having fun. These activities will expose students to common properties of water. If you have more to add to the list your contributions are welcome.

Videos prepared by: Vinisha K.
Special credits: www.arvindguptatoys.com

 Trees of HBCSE

Some kinds of plants after many years become big and tall trees. The stem of the plant grows into a thick, woody trunk, which supports a crown of branches, with leaves, flowers and fruits.

In response to the queries of some teachers and parents we have prepared this presentation of some common trees found in the premises of Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Mumbai. This presentation contains visuals along with brief note on different parts of a tree like leaf, fruit, flower and bark texture. We invite you to collect information of the trees in your campus and we will upload it in our website with credits to your school.

Drawn, Collected, Compiled and Presented by:  Vinisha K.
Bark imprints: Vinisha K. and Manish Chand
Technical support : Manoj Nair
Thanks to the supportive garden staff of HBCSE.

Common and Scientific Names of Plants and Trees of HBCSE

 Compiled by: Rajkumar Diwakar

The Story of Rice

Have you ever grown rice or helped to grow it? This is the story of how rice is grown from Small Science, Class IV. Observe, think and find out what is happening in each picture.

Design and Illustrations: Karen Haydock

Author: Jayashree Ramadas

Video prepared by: Manish Chand

 

Playing with mud…making bricks and houses

Children love to play with mud. Integrating a learning experience with an activity that they like to do is what “Make your own house” from Small Science textbook, Class III, Chapter 12 does. We wondered how children actually carry out the activity in the classroom…We decided to carry out the activity ourselves and reflected on our experiences engaging in the task.  Mud brick is one of the oldest as well as eco-friendly building materials and at the end of the building’s lifetime, the bricks will break down to earth again.

Written by Vinisha K. and Aswathy Raveendran

The story of – pollen grains

Pollination is included in Small Science, Class V Chapter 1. Aspects of pollen dispersal, not usually explicitly addressed, are emphasised in this “movie” story of – pollen grains

Story: Jyotsna Vijapurkar and Aisha Kawalkar
Art, photography, animation: Jyoti Kumbhare and Anuja Farkade
Music: Prasad Bhandarkar
Voice: Pooja Konde

 

Water Cycle

Audio-visual versions of the water cycle story in Small Science, Class IV

English Version

Hindi Version   |  Marathi Version

Story and Visual: Karen Haydock
Animation: Manish Chand
Sound effects: Manish A. Kukreja
English voice: Vinisha K.
Hindi voice: Arindam Bose
Marathi voice: Dipti Deshmukh
Author of Small Science Class 4: Jayashree Ramadas
Hindi translator, Halka Phulka Vigyan: K.K.Mishra
Marathi translator, Halke  Phulke Vidnyan: Deepa Palshikar

 

Vermicomposting

While reading Chapter 10 in Small Science, Class IV, “What is thrown out” you may have thought “how often do we dump things without thinking where it goes or what happens to it?” Thinking like this could help managing the waste at source. At HBCSE office premises we produce a lot of garden waste. Could we make something useful out of it? Here is a demonstration of Vermicomposting done by the Garden staff of HBCSE.

Vermicomposting Demonstration  presented by Vinisha K. Photography by Vinisha K. and Ankita Patel

 

Wild vegetables

In Chapter 9 of the Class V Small Science book, we have asked children to learn about wild vegetables. Wild vegetables 2012 to see some collected from around Mumbai.

Collected, Photographed and Compiled by ­ Jyotsna Vijapurkar, Anuja Farkade and Ankita Patel.  Thanks to Ritesh Khunyakari for consultations.

 

Presentations